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Brewers' bullpen lets another one get away in St. Louis

Jul 29, 2007 - 10:47 PM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) - The Milwaukee Brewers bullpen gave the St. Louis Cardinals another come-from-behind win.

Despite building a 5-0 lead, the Brewers could not hold on as they dropped a 9-5 decision to the Cardinals on Sunday in the finale of a four-game series.

Coupled with the Chicago Cubs' 6-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, Milwaukee's division lead, which it has held every day since April 20, narrowed to a mere half-game after their third straight setback.

Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva issued a bases-loaded walk to Ryan Ludwick in the bottom of the eighth inning to push Yadier Molina home to break a 5-5 tie.

Albert Pujols followed with a bases-clearing double to left field, tacking on three insurance runs for the Cardinals.

"It was huge," Pujols said. "But we're still six games back. We're playing one game at a time. We played great defense and got some big hits."

The comeback made a winner of Ryan Franklin (4-0), who pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Milwaukee's Derrick Turnbow (2-4) allowed four runs on four hits in one-third of an inning and took the loss.

"We just didn't make pitches when we needed to," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "It's a pretty good hitting club over there. I've never felt comfortable especially in this ballpark with any lead. They have guys that really swing the bat. We have a long way to go. We'll take the off day and regroup a little bit. We'll get ready to go on Tuesday."

"You can't figure this game out," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "They have one of the top bullpens in both leagues and to come back against them, you're not going to do it very often but that's what we did."

Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo did not allow a hit until the fifth inning. Scott Spiezio, activated from the 15-day disabled prior to the game, led off the frame with a sharp double down the right-field line. Molina walked and Adam Kennedy singled to load the bases.

"I think I tried to do too much," Gallardo said. "I tried to make too perfect of pitches instead of just throwing the ball like I throwing in the early innings. I tend to rush a little bit."

Juan Encarnacion pinch hit for Wells in the pitcher's spot and reached on a fielder's choice to shortstop, allowing Spiezio to score. David Eckstein then doubled to left- center, plating Molina to make it 5-2.

Gallardo uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Encarnacion to score the third run with Eckstein moving to third. Eckstein then scored on a groundout by Ludwick to pull the Cardinals within 5-4.

Gallardo allowed four runs on four hits and two walks, striking out seven.

Milwaukee opened the scoring in the third inning with an RBI single by rookie Ryan Braun and a two-run single by Johnny Estrada off St. Louis starter Kip Wells.

Gallardo added a two-run single with the bases loaded in the fifth to give the Brewers a 5-0 lead, which proved to not be enough.

Wells allowed five runs on 11 hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven.

"To come away with three victories is obviously a big lift for us," Wells said. "To come away with the game that we did is a good testament to our guys. We found the drive to fight through it and to come away with a good series here to take on the road."